Violence Recovery Program (VRP) — Chicago (UChicago Medicine)
City Profile: Chicago, Illinois
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Violence Recovery Program (VRP)
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University of Chicago Medicine
Program type: Hospital-based violence intervention program /
national training hub
Institutional home: University of Chicago Medicine, Level 1 Adult
Trauma Center; operated through the Urban Health Initiative
Launch date: 2018 (concurrent with opening of UChicago’s Level 1
trauma center)
Target population: Victims of intentional violence (gunshot,
stabbing, assault) and their families; serves both adults and children,
the only program in Chicago with this dual scope
Scale: 11,000+ patients engaged since 2018; approximately 2,000
patients in 2023 alone
Program director: Dwayne Johnson, LCSW (founding Violence Recovery
Specialist in 2018; named Director in 2024)
Funding: Institutional support from UChicago Medicine; $9.1 million
Block Hassenfeld Casdin Collaborative for Family Resilience
philanthropic investment; $3 million Chicago city investment (2024,
targeting 15 South Side neighborhoods); $4.92 million NIH grant
(November 2024, with Recovery Legal Care)
Why Chicago
African Americans comprised 81.2% of homicide victims and 79.4% of
nonfatal shooting survivors across Chicago’s community areas in the
period around the VRP’s founding, even though African American
residents make up approximately one-third of the city’s population,
according to research published by Franklin Cosey-Gay, Dwayne Johnson,
and colleagues in Academic Medicine in June 2023.[1]
For decades, UChicago Medicine did not have a Level 1 Adult Trauma
Center at all, despite being located in a high-violence area, a
longstanding source of community tension and organized advocacy. When
the trauma center opened in 2018, leadership made a deliberate decision
that the Violence Recovery Program would launch alongside it. The VRP
was not added to an existing trauma program. It was designed as a core
component of the trauma center from the beginning.[2]
Program Design
The VRP operates on a philosophy that the emergency department visit is
the beginning of an intervention, not the end of one. “We meet patients
and families at the door of the ED,” Dwayne Johnson has said. He and
other specialists provide immediate support: “getting food and water
for the patient to helping families navigate the hospital, facilitating
updates from physicians, and even arranging for a viewing for the family
if the patient doesn’t survive.” The support extends to making calls
for patients, taking them to appointments, and breaking down access
barriers rather than handing them a list of phone numbers.[3]
The program staffs roughly 20 violence recovery specialists working
around the clock, ensuring a specialist is always available when a
trauma patient arrives, regardless of time of day. Specialists are drawn
from different professional backgrounds but share core competencies:
trauma-informed engagement, crisis intervention, case management, and
enough community knowledge to connect patients to the specific resources
they need in the specific neighborhoods they come from.
The VRP is unique in Chicago in that it serves both adults and children
— the only hospital-based violence intervention program in the city
with this dual scope. This matters because the violence affecting South
Side families often touches multiple generations simultaneously. A
parent shot and a teenager shot a year later may both pass through
UChicago Medicine; the VRP can engage both.
The program’s referral network is one of its most distinctive features:
more than 60 community-based social and behavioral health agencies,
across domains including housing, employment, education, legal aid, food
security, mental health, and substance use. When a violence recovery
specialist makes a referral, they are making a warm connection to a
specific organization with a specific contact person, not providing a
directory.
Recovery Legal Care: In December 2022, UChicago launched Recovery
Legal Care in partnership with Legal Aid Chicago, embedding two
full-time lawyers within the Level 1 trauma center. The initiative
provides bedside civil legal help for patients and families recovering
from violent injuries — addressing eviction threats, child custody
proceedings, insurance disputes, and other civil legal crises that
arrive at the worst possible moment. In November 2024, the VRP and
Recovery Legal Care received a $4.92 million NIH grant to study the
impact of free legal help on recovery and violence prevention
outcomes.[4]
Scale and Patient Volume
The program’s documented growth across its first seven years of
operation:
- Since 2018 launch: 11,000+ patients and families engaged
- 2023 alone: nearly 2,000 patients, approximately two-thirds with
gunshot wounds
- 60+ community-based social and behavioral health agency referral
network
- Training partnerships with hospitals in multiple states
- By 2023, patients connected to more than 2,500 referrals to
community partners for housing, employment, education, social services, food, and mental health[5]
The Training Mission
The VRP has explicitly built national replication as part of its
organizational identity. Dwayne Johnson has stated the program’s goal
directly: “Our goal is to have our model duplicated throughout the
nation. I truly believe this program is life-changing, and other
institutions see that.”[6]
The training approach is intensive and sustained, not transactional.
When Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta launched its IVYY Project in
January 2023, the UChicago team provided a four-day workshop on the Hyde
Park campus for a team from OSF HealthCare’s program in Rockford,
Illinois. Christine Goggins, lead violence recovery specialist and
licensed social worker, developed and facilitated the curriculum. In
October 2023, the VRP received a $99,000 Illinois Department of Public
Health grant to provide training and technical assistance to other
Illinois hospital-based programs.[7]
The training model covers trauma pager activation, specialist deployment
protocol, community agency network development, vicarious trauma support
for staff, and integration with medical team workflows.[8]
The BHC Collaborative
The Block Hassenfeld Casdin Collaborative for Family Resilience —
funded by a $9.1 million gift from the Ellen & Ronald Block Family
Foundation and the Hassenfeld Family Foundation — has provided the
philanthropic infrastructure that allowed the program to develop
capabilities government funding alone would not support. BHC
Collaborative investments have funded:
- Community partner grants to South Side organizations (Claretian
Associates and others)
- The Wrap (Wentworth Resiliency Arts Program), a two-week summer
program for teens using art to process trauma
- Vicarious trauma support programming for VRP specialists
- Evaluation infrastructure for program outcomes
- The Recovery Legal Care partnership
Between 2019 and 2023, the VRP engaged 7,984 patients through BHC
Collaborative support, with more than 2,500 receiving referrals to
community partners. In communities served by Claretian Associates (one
VRP partner), shootings declined 41.67% in South Shore, 39.02% in South
Chicago, and 18.9% in South Deering between 2021 and 2023. These figures
do not isolate the VRP’s contribution from Claretian’s direct work,
but they establish the partnership’s geographic scope.[9]
The Chicago City Investment
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2024 community safety plan included a $3
million investment in hospital-based violence intervention programming,
administered through the Chicago Department of Public Health. The
investment targets 15 neighborhoods that account for roughly half of the
city’s gun violence. Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige, Chicago’s Public
Health Commissioner, framed the investment in public health terms:
“Violence is a public health crisis, and just as we treat the physical
manifestations of violence, we must also treat the psychological and
emotional aspects for both victims and their families.”[10]
The city investment expanded on the foundation the UChicago VRP had
built over six years. The documented best practices the city committed
to include “reduced recidivism rates, return to work and school,
increased self-esteem, decreased retaliatory violence, decreased
substance use, and decreased trauma.”[11] These are outcome
categories, not a single metric — reflecting the multi-domain
character of what the VRP actually measures.
The $3 million investment targets the 15 South Side and West Side
neighborhoods that account for roughly half of Chicago’s gun violence.
In those communities, between 2019 and 2023, the VRP’s BHC
Collaborative support connected 7,984 patients through program services,
with more than 2,500 receiving referrals to community partners for
housing, employment, education, social services, food, and mental
health.[12]
Recovery Legal Care: Embedded Civil Legal Services
In December 2022, UChicago launched Recovery Legal Care in partnership
with Legal Aid Chicago, embedding two full-time lawyers within the Level
1 trauma center. The initiative provides bedside civil legal help for
patients and families recovering from violent injuries — addressing
eviction threats, child custody proceedings, insurance disputes, and
other civil legal crises that can destabilize a patient’s
post-discharge environment. In November 2024, the VRP and Recovery Legal
Care received a $4.92 million NIH grant to study the impact of free
legal help on recovery and violence prevention outcomes.[13]
Evidence and Limitations
The VRP lacks an independently verified controlled outcome evaluation
comparable to the RCT evidence for other HVIPs or the Stanford
evaluation of Denver STAR. Its evidence base is primarily
program-reported: patient volume figures, referral counts, and
descriptive outcome data from case studies and the annual community
benefit report.
What is documented:
- 11,000+ patients engaged since 2018 (program-reported data)
- 60+ community agency referral partnerships (organizational,
verifiable)
- Community violence declines in adjacent neighborhoods after
partnership with VRP partner organizations (correlated, not causally attributed)
- Published academic research on the model’s design and theoretical
framework (peer-reviewed, but descriptive)
- Independent reinjury rate evaluation comparable to other HVIP
programs
- Controlled analysis of the program’s causal contribution to
violence reduction in the surrounding neighborhoods
- Long-term (3+ year) patient outcome data at the individual patient
level
Atlanta, Rockford, and beyond through training partnerships. Whether
patient outcomes match what independent evaluation has shown elsewhere
remains undocumented in peer-reviewed literature.[14]
Program Scale and National Reach
In 2018, violence intervention was built into the new Level 1 Trauma
Center from its opening day — not added later as a supplemental
service. The resulting program: 11,000+ patients since 2018, roughly 20
violence recovery specialists working around the clock, 60+ community
agency referral partnerships, integrated civil legal services through
Recovery Legal Care, and a documented training mission that has reached
hospitals in Illinois, Georgia, and beyond.[15][16][17]
Footnotes
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[1]: Violence demographics. African Americans comprising 81.2% of
homicide victims, 79.4% of nonfatal shooting survivors in Chicago.
Source: Academic Medicine article (Franklin Cosey-Gay, Dwayne
Johnson et al., June 2023), citing Chicago-specific data. Note:
Cosey-Gay served as VRP director November 2021 through 2024; Johnson
named director in 2024.
[2]: VRP launch concurrent with Level 1 Adult Trauma Center opening in
2018. Source: UChicago Medicine website; UChicago 2023 Annual
Community Benefit Report; “Meet Franklin Cosey-Gay” (UChicago
Civic Engagement, describing 2018 VRP founding).
[3]: Dwayne Johnson, VRP Director: “We meet patients and families at
the door of the ED” and program operational description. Source:
UChicago Civic Engagement profile of Dwayne Johnson.
[4]: Recovery Legal Care. Launch December 2022, partnership with Legal
Aid Chicago, two embedded lawyers. $4.92 million NIH grant November
2024 with Recovery Legal Care. Source: UChicago 2023 Annual
Community Benefit Report; UChicago Medicine Trauma Resiliency page
(2024).
[5]: VRP patient scale. 11,000+ patients since 2018; approximately
2,000 in 2023; 60+ community agencies; 7,984 patients under BHC
Collaborative (2019–2023); 2,500+ referrals. Sources: UChicago
Medicine Trauma Resiliency page (2024); UChicago 2023 Annual
Community Benefit Report; HVIP newsletter source material.
[6]: Dwayne Johnson, VRP Director: “Our goal is to have our model
duplicated throughout the nation.” Source: UChicago Medicine press
release on training partnership, also reproduced in Newswise (May
2024) and UChicago Civic Engagement site.
[7]: VRP training mission. Four-day workshop for OSF Strive team
(Rockford IL), April 2024. Christine Goggins as curriculum lead.
$99,000 Illinois Department of Public Health training grant,
October 2023. Sources: UChicago Medicine press release; UChicago
2023 Annual Community Benefit Report.
[8]: VRP training mission. Four-day workshop for OSF Strive team
(Rockford IL), April 2024. Christine Goggins as curriculum lead.
$99,000 Illinois Department of Public Health training grant,
October 2023. Sources: UChicago Medicine press release; UChicago
2023 Annual Community Benefit Report.
[9]: BHC Collaborative. $9.1 million gift from Block and Hassenfeld
foundations; 2019 launch. Claretian Associates partnership and
community shooting reduction figures. Source: UChicago 2023 Annual
Community Benefit Report.
[10]: Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige, Commissioner, Chicago Department of
Public Health. $3 million city investment announcement. Source:
Chicago Department of Public Health press release; HVIP newsletter.
Dr. Ige confirmed in role as of 2026 (Crain’s Chicago Business
Women of Influence, February 2026).
[11]: Chicago city investment best practices: “reduced recidivism
rates, return to work and school, increased self-esteem, decreased
retaliatory violence, decreased substance use, and decreased
trauma.” Source: CDPH announcement of $3 million HVIP investment.
[12]: VRP patient scale. 11,000+ patients since 2018; approximately
2,000 in 2023; 60+ community agencies; 7,984 patients under BHC
Collaborative (2019–2023); 2,500+ referrals. Sources: UChicago
Medicine Trauma Resiliency page (2024); UChicago 2023 Annual
Community Benefit Report; HVIP newsletter source material.
[13]: Recovery Legal Care. Launch December 2022, partnership with Legal
Aid Chicago, two embedded lawyers. $4.92 million NIH grant November
2024 with Recovery Legal Care. Source: UChicago 2023 Annual
Community Benefit Report; UChicago Medicine Trauma Resiliency page
(2024).
[14]: VRP training mission. Four-day workshop for OSF Strive team
(Rockford IL), April 2024. Christine Goggins as curriculum lead.
$99,000 Illinois Department of Public Health training grant,
October 2023. Sources: UChicago Medicine press release; UChicago
2023 Annual Community Benefit Report.
[15]: VRP patient scale. 11,000+ patients since 2018; approximately
2,000 in 2023; 60+ community agencies; 7,984 patients under BHC
Collaborative (2019–2023); 2,500+ referrals. Sources: UChicago
Medicine Trauma Resiliency page (2024); UChicago 2023 Annual
Community Benefit Report; HVIP newsletter source material.
[16]: Dwayne Johnson, VRP Director: “Our goal is to have our model
duplicated throughout the nation.” Source: UChicago Medicine press
release on training partnership, also reproduced in Newswise (May
2024) and UChicago Civic Engagement site.
[17]: VRP training mission. Four-day workshop for OSF Strive team
(Rockford IL), April 2024. Christine Goggins as curriculum lead.
$99,000 Illinois Department of Public Health training grant,
October 2023. Sources: UChicago Medicine press release; UChicago
2023 Annual Community Benefit Report.